Dealmakers
TOM BLAKESON Head of formats, Remarkable TV
I CAREER
March 2011 Head of formats, Remarkable March 2006 Executive producer of shows including, for the BBC: Pointless, The Kids Are All Right and Hot Rods; for ITV: The Whole 19 Yards, Golden Balls, Divided, Spin Star and For The Rest Of Your Life; and for C5: In The Grid June 2004 Works in Granada Entertainment’s development department originating, developing and piloting formats for ITV as well as other UK channels and international markets such as Germany, Australia and the US
n March, Endemol-owned indie Remarkable Television gave exec- utive producer Tom Blakeson the
newly created role of head of enter- tainment formats. Reporting to Remarkable MD David Flynn, Blake- son counts Channel 4’s runaway hit The Million Pound Drop (pictured, below) – and BBC1’s quickly dropped Don’t Scare The Hare – among his credits. In his new role, he will develop and pitch new entertainment formats, though his role also has an interna- tional dimension to it. A good illustration of this is BBC
quiz format Pointless, in which con- testants try to score the lowest number of points, outsmarting each other by choosing the least popular answers to questions. It had a subdued start on BBC2 daytime. But the show, with its on-screen double act of Alexander Armstrong and Richard Osman – the latter originally a solely off-screen exec – has built a word-of-mouth fol- lowing and, after a pick-up by France 3, looks poised to be a slow-burn international hit. “Series on series, we were increas- ing volume and share, and the BBC realised there was more potential,” says Blakeson, who exec produces. In June, it transferred to the BBC1 access prime slot vacated by The Weakest Link, where it has built audiences and a head of steam. It was this that alerted France 3 to its format potential.
“Internationally,
the key is that it’s all about being smarter than other people, and coming up with better
answers. The
format doesn’t pat- ronise the viewer, it lets them in on the joke and play as equals.”
Although Remark- able was pleased with the show, Blakeson says it took a while for the company to realise it might be embraced by an international audi- ence. “Pointless was
28 | Broadcast | 30 September 2011
Pointless
developed and commissioned for a specifi c slot and audience,” Blakeson says. “While we knew it was a great format, it was diffi cult for people to see how that would work for them when it was so unique and specialist for the BBC2 afternoon slot.”
France 3, however, was on the hunt for something new. It had been having diffi culty with
formats, pulling L’Étoffe des Champions, a reality chal- lenge show in which three sporting legends try to coach ordinary members of the public to success, from its Wednesday night primetime home after it achieved only a 4.4% audience share in its
fi rst two weeks. French pilot
According to Blakeson, Endemol France shot a
pilot during a gap in the UK show’s fi lming block, with key production support from Remarkable. On the basis of that pilot, Personne n’y Avait Pensé (Pointless) was commissioned as a series, and has settled well into its Saturday evening gateway slot, increasing the slot average by 35%. “We gave them a
lot of up-front help for
‘Pointless doesn’t patronise the viewer, it lets them in on the joke
and play as equals’ Tom Blakeson
the pilot and continue to help any way we can,” says Blakeson. To meet the needs of the French
market, Endemol France adapted the quiz slightly, says Blakeson, with Cyril Féraud (formerly of Fort Boyard and Art Attack, and recently a French Eurovision representative) as a lone host. “I think France demonstrates it’s a fantastic access prime format,” Blakeson continues. “The FR3 adap- tation shows that Pointless is a very versatile, modular format; you can do quite a lot with it while keeping the key hook. You can translate it into any slot and market, but it’s proven to perform in access prime.” The France sale has sparked inter-
est among other buyers, with Blake- son and his team keen to convert the buzz generated by Personne into wider international sales. Endemol reports interest in the format from major markets in Europe, and is already piloting the show in additional territo- ries – though it is not yet able to say which ones. “What some people thought was quite a complex and intellectual show is actually quite popular and populist, and that has helped us with our international push,” Blakeson concludes.
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